2E Sunday, October 20, 2019 The Daily NonpareilTUMMIES TO TODDLERS

COURTNEY UPAHCOURTNEY.UPAH@NONPAREILONLINE.COM

JoAnn Jensen and Council Bluffs native Tim Jensen mar-ried nine years ago. The cou-ple decided to live in Iowa near Tim’s family.

“I moved here from Minne-sota, so I was looking for new healthcare and looking for a place where we could have all of our services met whenever we decided to have a family,” said JoAnn.

Her journey at Methodist Jennie Edmundson Hospital began one year after the couple married — when she found out she was pregnant, despite med-ical diagnoses with a side effect of infertility.

Their son, Lucas, was deliv-ered stillborn in 2012.

“We were able to have our staff with us there the whole time,” she said. “We were pro-vided some great care in that situation. We were planning on a healthy delivery in a few weeks.”

Dr. Lori Platt, JoAnn’s OB/GYN physician from Methodist Jennie Edmundson Hospital was pregnant and on maternity leave when Lucas was delivered.

“I was out of the hospital when she came in, not feeling the baby move,” Platt said. “That was something really hard for us because we had kind of bonded over being pregnant together and it was sad to see her go through the loss of a baby.”

The reason Lucas was still-born was never determined, which added additional risk and stress, JoAnn said.

After working with special-ists, just short of two years later, JoAnn was once again pregnant.

“Eventually we were able to become pregnant, and were blessed to find out we were hav-ing twins,” JoAnn said. “ It was another thing that wasn’t really part of our plan, but Dr. Platt went through all that preg-nancy care with us.”

While expecting, JoAnn suffered from factors that attributed her previous loss

and hyperemesis.“Even though I had only

been pregnant once, the care for pregnancy and energy used for your body is a lot different for a twin pregnancy or multiple pregnancy,” JoAnn said. “I was in the hospital multiple times for fluid, as well as heightened anxieties, heightened stress and pressure because of the passing of our son.”

The twins were planned to be delivered in March, however that was another event that did not go according to plan.

“My body was not loving preg-nancy by February at all,” JoAnn said.

On a day that was scheduled for a nonstress test and typical check up, JoAnn decided to wait for her husband to drive her to the hospital.

A friend who was a nurse was texting her during the day, JoAnn said.

“She asked me what’s going

on and I said ‘I’m pretty sure I’m going into labor, but I’m not pos-itive yet.’ I was still comfortable being at home and my husband would be home within the hour or so,” JoAnn said.

Staff members were waiting when JoAnn and Tim arrived and ran multiple tests.

“At that point, I knew the kids were fine. I could still feel both of them,” she said. “To me, it was just the biggest relief and the staff were always really conscious of hearing about my needs and how much stress and anguish I was going through.”

JoAnn was in labor, and trans-ferred to Methodist Women’s Hospital in Elkhorn, Nebraska, so both she and the twins could be in the same facility after the birth.

The twins were born through vaginal birth within an hour of arriving at the Women’s Hospi-tal. Platt and the nurses nurses communicated with Tim over the

phone the whole time.Platt finally visited the

Nebraska hospital that weekend and walked with JoAnn and Tim to the NICU. In that moment, they were officially named — Sophie and Brody Jensen.

“It was so refreshing to see those babies and be like ‘yes JoAnn and her husband deserve that. They deserve to be happy parents,’” Platt said.

After their second pregnancy, JoAnn and Tim decided they wanted to expand their family, but they were having a hard time. They were ready to give up until they found they were pregnant again.

“For the most part, it went according to plan. I was sick during pregnancy again and this time I didn’t need to be in the hospital again or as much, so that was a success story in itself,” JoAnn said. “I missed my labor and delivery nurse friends because that’s when I had some

rest and had some quiet time for

myself.”

Platt worked with JoAnn

after that experience on how to

take care of herself and remain

healthy during the pregnancy

and delivered a son, Beau, on

Oct. 1, 2018, at a scheduled

cesarean delivery.

“I promised a regular preg-

nancy,” Platt said. “We were

going to have that scheduled

C-section and go full term and

we did.”

JoAnn was released from Jen-

nie Edmundson that weekend,

but she could feel something was

wrong just a few days later.

JoAnn went in to check the

pain — doctors deemed an emer-

gent case because of discolor-

ation and pain when she moved.

After a CAT scan, the physi-

cians found renal cell carcinoma

(renal kidney cancer) but didn’t

have an answer for the described

pain or loss of blood.

Surgery for the immediate

pain and blood loss showed an

aneurysm and hematoma on the

right ovary, pneumonia, peritoni-

tis, five other things and a weird

infection, JoAnn said.

After an ablation surgery,

JoAnn was found to be cancer

free. This service was only offered

at Methodist Jennie Edmundson

Hospital in the area, with the

next closest in Iowa City, she

said.

Feeling supported by the

Methodist care system, espe-

cially Jennie Edmundson Hospi-

tal, JoAnn said she is doing the

best she can to care for herself,

and despite not everything going

to plan, she and Tim have every-

thing they were looking for —

healthy kids.

“There’s not really anything

I can say that has been normal

about any of these processes,

but the comfort and care that

our entire family received was

something we couldn’t get better

anywhere else,” said Jensen.

After complications, mom raises three healthy children cancer-free

Staff photo/Joe Shearer

The Jensen family inside their Crescent home on Oct. 10, 2019. From left, Sophie, 5; Tim; Beau, 1; JoAnn; and Brody, 5.